The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1887-05-13
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
Tho Growing Evil Of Immoral Lit
STATURE Depicted.
the Power OF the Press for the Foaterin4
Of euPpresssen Of the Evll-The Moral
and Physical Effect OF Had Books
and Pictures.

ON q recent Sabbath delivered q sermon
on the subject, taking for his text:
Many OF them, also. which used curious arts
brought their books together. and burned them
before all men; and they counted the price Of
ehem. and found it Hfty thousand pieces Of
silver Acts. xix. 49,
Paul had been stirring up Ephesus with
nome lively sermons about the sins of
that place. Among the most important
results was the fact that the citizens
Drought out their bad books and in q pub
Tic place made a bonfire OF them. see
che people coming out with their arms
tull OF Ephesian literature, and tossing it
into the flames. l hear an economist
standing BY and saying:
tStop this waste. Here are s.. 500 worth
81 oooks-do you propose to burn them
oil upi II you don't want to real them
yourself sell them and let somebody else
read them"
'No,', said the people, eff these books
are not good for US they are not good for
anybody else, and we shall stand and
watch until the last leaf has turned to
ashes. They have done Us a world Of
harm, and they shall never do others
HARM
Hear the flames crack'e and roar.
Well. my friends. one of the wants of
the cities of this country is a great bonfire
OF bad books aud newspapers. We have
enough fuel to make a blaze two hundred
feet high. Many Of the publishing houses
would do well to throw into the blaze
their entire stock of goods. Bring forth
the insuffera BILE trash and put it into the
tire, and let it be known in the presence OF
God, and angels, and men, that you are
going to rid your homes of the Overtop-
ping and underlying curse of profligate
literature.
The printing press is the mightiest
agency on earth for good and for evil
The minister of the Gospel, standing in a
pulpit, has a responsible position; but l
do not think it is as responsible as the po-
sition of an editor or publisher. At what
distant point of time, at what far-out
cycle of eternity, will cease the influence
Of Henry ]. Raymond. or Horace
Greeley. or James Gordon Bennett. or a
Watson Webb, or an Erastus Brooks. or a
Thomas kinsella! Take the simple
statistic that our New York
daiiies now have a circulation of
about s5o.Oo0 per day, and add to it the
fact that three of our weekly periodicals
have an aggregate circulation of about
Loco, 600, and then cipher. if you can, how
Tar up, and how far down, and how far
out. reach the influences Of the American
p:intlng-press
Great God! What is to be the issue Of
all this! l believe the Lord intends the
printing press to be the chief means for
the worlds rescue and evangeliZation,
and l think that the great last battle of
the world will not be fought with swords
and guns. but with types and presses-a
Sol al
over, trampling down and crushing out
for ever that which is depraved. The
only way to overcome unclean literature
is by scattering abroad that which is
healthful. May God speed the cylinders
Of an honest, intelligent aggressive,
Christian printing press.
have to tell you this mornin that the
greatest blessing that ever came to this
Nation is that of an elevated literature.
and the greatest scourge has been that of
unclean literature. This last has its vic
Tins in all occupations and departments.
1t has helped to fill insane asylums ard
penitentiaries and aims houses. and dens Of
shame. The bodies of this infection lie in
the hospitals and in the graves, while
their souls are being tossed over into a
lost eternity, an avalanche of horror and
despair.
The London plague was nothing to it.
That counted its victims by thousands,
but this modern pest has already shoveled
its millions into the CLEARINGHOUSE Of the
morally dead. The longest rail train that
ever ran over the Erie or Hudson tracks
was not long enough nor large enough to
carry the beastliness and the putrefaction
which have been gathered up in bad
books and newspapers of this land in the
-ast twenty years.
Now, it Is amid such circumstances that
tput, this morning, question of over
mastering importance to you and your
families. What books and newspapers
shall we reads You see group them to-
gether. A newspaper is only a book in a
swifter and more portable shape, and the
same rules which will apply to book read
ing will apply to newspaper reading.
What shall we read! Shall our minds be
the receptacle for everything that an
author has mind to write! Shall there
be no distinction between the tree of life
and the tree Of death. Shall we stoop
down and drink cut OF the trough which
the wickedness Of men has filled with
pollution and shames Shall We mire In
impurity and chase fantastic will-o'-the-
wisps across the swamps, when we might
walk in the blooming gardens of Gods D
no! For the sake of our present and ever
lasting welfare we must make an intelli-
gent and Christian choice.
Standing, as We do, chin deep in ficti-
tious literature, tho first question that
many Of the young people are asking me
is: ''Shall we read novelsw I reply:
There are novels that are pure, good,
Christian, elevating to the heart and en-
nobling to the life. But l have still fur
ther to say that believe that ninety nine
out Of the hundred novels in this day are
balefuland destructive to the last degree.
A pure work of fiction is history and poet
nv combined. 1t is a history of thin gs
around US, with the licenses and the as
sumed names of poetry. The world can
never pay the debt which it owes to such
fictitious writers as Hawthorne and Nc
Kenzie. and Lander and Hunt, and Arthur
and Marion Harland, and others whose
names are familiar to all. The follies of
high life were never better exposed than
by Miss Edgeworth. The memories Of the
past were never more faithfully embalm.
ed than in the writings of Walter Scott.
Cooper's novels are BEAUTIFULLY red
olent with the breath OF the sea.
weed, and the air of the American forest
Charles Kingsley has smitten the NOR
bidity Of the world, and led great many
to appreciate the poetry of sound health.
strong muscles, and fresh air Thackery
did grand work IN caricaturing the pre-
tenders to gentlity and high blood.
Dickens has built his own monument in
his books. which are an everlasting plea
for the poor, and the anathema Of Unjust
ice
Now, say, books like these. read at
right times, and read in right propo rtion
with other books, can not help but be en- |
nobling and purifying; but alas for the |
loathsome and impure literature that has